What to do with 60+ years of Blackpool press cuttings?

razorwire

razorwire

Well-known member
Sadly my dad passed away yesterday at the age of 87 after a short stay in hospital. A lifelong Blackpool fan right until the end, and it's because of him that myself and now my daughter have gone the same path - some of my earliest childhood memories are of us making the 4-5 hour journey up to Bloomfield Road to watch the Seasiders in our Austin Allegro, surrounded with tangerine teddy bears.

He was a bit of a hoarder, and he has left a lot of stuff for me to sort though including hundreds if not thousands of football related books, and binders full of magazines (Shoot!, Goal, Football Monthly etc) galore. However of particular note is his collection of press cuttings books. He would get a local Blackpool paper sent down to Buckinghamshire twice every week, cut out the Pool match report and paste it in. The collection runs from the 1950's right through to 2016, which was the last year he did. I'm pretty sure there's a match report from every single game for that period in there.

As much as I'd really love to keep all of these to remind my of my dad I just don't have the room in our house (there's 70 odd of the Blackpool ones, plus others with England stuff and general football etc). I'm going to offer them to one of his friends but again I'm not sure he'll have room either so any suggestions for someone/somewhere that would appreciate them?
 

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Sorry for your loss.
Sounds like a great collection.
IMO the cutting collection needs to be kept together as an archive, irrespective of where they end up; the books maybe donate to the Armfield for future auctions.
 
I'd like to echo the thoughts of others on here, I'm sorry for your loss.

That is an incredible collection and deserves to be kept together somehow (certainly the cuttings).

I'd approach the club; I reckon Simon Sadler might be personally interested in it.

One plea I would have though; don't allow an auction of the stuff, please let it be used for raffles. Auctions are play things of the rich; raffles give everybody a chance to win something.
 
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What an amazing collection. Something about your post nearly brought me to tears. My brother used to send me cuttings from the Green every week by post when I was working in Saudi Arabia. Your dad sounds great and yes, it would be brilliant to keep the old match reports together somehow. RIP.
 
Thanks everyone, some great suggestions there for the cuttings, once the dust settles I think I'll start by contacting the club and seeing what they say, and then go from there. For the books I'm happy to donate to other organisation that can use them to raise a bit of cash, there's literally a room full of them (as well as programmes, shirts etc) going back over the last six decades so it'll take me a while to sort through.
 
Those pictures are beautiful. Sorry for your loss. I echo what TS says about auctions but I really hope you can find a home for them.
 
Condolences on your loss. This brings back memories. I used to do much the same in the 60s and early 70s when I lived in London, subscribing to the Green, collecting programmes, badges, rosettes etc. I think my Mum must have realised the storage problems which lay ahead, which is why she threw them all out when I got married!
 
Condolences on your loss very sad 🧡

Roy callay is doing a book on jimmy armfield
Maybe contact him on Twitter or on here
He has been asking for jimmy armfield material for his new book 👍
 
Gregbfc said:
Condolences on your loss very sad 🧡

Roy callay is doing a book on jimmy armfield
Maybe contact him on Twitter or on here
He has been asking for jimmy armfield material for his new book 👍
Click to expand...
Not sure where Roy is based these days. Someone once mentioned he may be someone over the channel, but details are sketchy. Don't tweet him mind, he has a tendency to get a little tetchy.
 
If the club aren’t interested, Lancashire archives or football archives (who store their collections at Deepdale). Worst thing that can happen is collections getting broken up.
 
So sorry to hear about your loss razor. Gosh, there must be thousands of memories in there.

If it was me, I know apols, I think I'd try to keep the cuttings together ie BFC, Eng and perhaps offer them to the NFM ensuring that they are on loan from your Dad. I know I'd be proud to have my name on something seen to be of interest to the public.

For the books and mags have a look at www.pmfc.co.uk you may be able to offload there for a profit.

Good luck
 
Sorry to hear about your Dad.
One thing I will add: try to keep the collection together, whoever or wherever it goes. 👍
 
Thank you for taking the time to post this, Razorwire, at what must be a difficult time for you and yours. You are clearly in a lot of peoples’ thoughts.

I love that, even though your Dad moved to Bucks, he was still a Seasider. I used to keep scrapbooks in the 80s for a little while, but I stopped it when I moved to Bucks in 1990. My mum would still send me the cuttings from the Gazette and I keep finding them in the garage…

In some ways, the pleasure your dad gleaned from doing this will mean his memory lives on; that care and attention he gave this project gives us an invaluable insight into his life and times.

May he rest in peace.
 
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